Coterie - Tumblr Posts

coterie: prologue

gang!au x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

a/n: this is set in the future, where the ‘02 liners are at the drinking age, like 2021, as to not promote underage drinking (dohyun’s still underage though so no bubbly for you, buddy.)

t.w.: there will be explicit mention of alcohol, violence, cursing, and maybe some nsfw elements down the line.

seoul; a bustling city that never seemed to sleep. the two forms of seoul you were familiar with shared different characteristics. the daytime seoul had its streets crowded with people in business attire, or students and there was always a car honking and chatter could be heard even in places that were seemingly quieter than others. then, there was the nighttime seoul, where the neon lights were endless, the smell of soju filled the crisp air, and there was never a sign of shutting down the party. yet, something about this city is charming, and quite frankly may be the same reason you never wanted to leave it. you moved to seoul for school, and you don’t see yourself leaving even when that finishes. you see, seoul holds an important meaning to you because it brought color into your life. you live a bland lifestyle, you think. you wake up every day at the same time, eat the same thing for breakfast every day, and rotate the same chores and to-do list items routinely. when you came to korea for school, even your major was monotonous: political science and government (not trying to call out anyone sksk sorry if it offended any of my poli sci folks out there xoxo) you also didn’t go out partying with any of your other college friends on weekends, you’d much rather chill in your dorm and stream ‘queer eye’ while eating take out thai food. but, these things didn’t necessarily mean you were a bland person yourself. you think you’re fun: you have a sense of humor, you can tie a knot with a cherry stem in your mouth and you’ve got a social life, it’s just not as active as everyone else’s.

you seldom share these thoughts with your dorm mates, soobin and haseul. “yah, y/n, you are fun. you just tone it down a lot.” soobin explains and you pout. “gosh, I’m tired of being like this. I wanna live it up a little, you know? it’s not like I want to drop out of college and live on the edge, but it gets tiring just doing the same things every day.” your head drops into your hands. then, as if she had an ‘a-ha’ moment, haseul exclaims, “we should find you a boyfriend!” soobin seems to agree with this, and before you say anything, she stops you with a hand in the air. “hold that thought, I know who I can set you up with. lee jinhyuk from my calculus class! he’s smart, funny, cute and single!” hanseul nods enthusiastically at this, “that’s perfect, we’re lab partners, so I have his number. you should really try it out, y/n, I think you’ll like him.” and long story short, that’s how you end up at a fancy italian restaurant. you hear a, “y/n?” and look up to find a tall guy, with a gorgeous smile plastered onto his face. he reaches out his hand and with a deep voice, introduces himself. “jinhyuk. it’s nice to meet you.” you two go in and the waiter leads you to a table for two. you two talk for a bit, jinhyuk’s a physics major and tells you about what he wants to do with his degree. you tell him about yourself and he is paying attention diligently. when the waiter comes and leaves with your orders, jinhyuk receives a phone call. the slight furrow in his brow and the small frown settling in the corner of his mouth worries you a bit, then he looks up at you and gives you an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, can I take this?”

you nod and tell him, “go ahead, I’ll be here.” he thanks you before taking his phone and stepping out of the restaurant. five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes pass and you wait for him, the waiter has long gone after he dropped off your food. you see the people around you continuously looking at you and whispering to the people on their tables. it’s embarrassing and you try to hide your face in your hands to avoid thinking about the fact that your date stood you up. angry, you get up and take your purse as you burst out through the doors of the restaurant. steam could be fuming out of your ears and you grab your phone, sending your roommates a quick text before calling an uber. where you stand, a dark alleyway is right behind you and as you wait for your uber to arrive, you can’t help but notice the strange sounds coming from the alley. almost like someone’s getting beat up or something. you hear an oddly familiar voice, and even though your mind tells you not to, your body moves closer to the alley, your curiosity at its peak. somehow a ray of light passes and you’re able to have a better look at what’s going on... jinhyuk is against the wall, and is bloody and battered as he’s surrounded by a small group of men. who are they, you think, and then your heart drops into your stomach as your eye catches the famous silver butterfly emblem: it’s x1.

coterie: one

gang!au x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

a/n: mentions of drug use, cursing, and violence, so proceed with caution.

x1. everyone knew who they were; the notorious gang of eleven people, that only had one goal: to be the best and biggest gang in all of korea. they resided in seoul, but that’s about all anyone knew in terms of their location. they’ve been nothing but active ever since you moved here, and more than once you’ve seen their name on your tv screen or the newspapers. they had done some of the biggest crimes. they even once brutally murdered one of korea’s most known doctors, shin sam. they were also equally known for the anonymity which only increased the fear in the public eye. the only thing that ever meant they were present at an event was that after a killing or a heist, they would leave a small metal butterfly, to let the higher authorities know exactly what happened and who was behind it. of course, you also knew this much about them, which is why you froze when you saw what was happening to your date. jinhyuk winced in pain, his eyes closed. “you promised to have the payment for the drugs ten days ago. you know how we are with deadlines.” a boy with a slightly deep voice sneers. “that’s right. just be glad not all of us are here for this and that the boss only sent the three of us here to come and find you. if the money isn’t in our hands in three days’ time, consider your legs broken. consider yourself lucky that we didn’t kill you off now, and we usually also don’t have a grace period. but, we’re only doing this because you know one of the members well,” another boy with a deeper voice reasons. “don’t forget about it, lee. three days or i’ll slice your fucking arm off and shove it up your ass,” the last boy says, gritting his teeth. this was all you needed to hear before you let out a gasp, your eyes wide and your hand covering your mouth. the four heads turn to face you, and the three members you can only assume are part of x1 run off fast, leaving jinhyuk to rest his head against the brick wall, heavily breathing. you shakily rush over to him, and whimper, “are you okay?” he doesn’t even have the strength to nod, so he lets out a groan in pain, and you help him up. you have him put his arm around your shoulders and you support the now limping boy out of the alley. your uber pulls up to the curb a few seconds later, and you give the uber driver jinhyuk’s address. his dorm, luckily, isn’t too far from yours so when you arrive, you help jinhyuk out and walk him to his room.

“thanks for dropping me off,” jinhyuk starts but you cut him off. “i’m not leaving until you tell me everything, and I get you cleaned up.” with a stern look, you’re able to pass through jinhyuk’s door and he sits down on a chair. “the first aid box is in the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink.” his voice rings and you bite your lip, gnawing at the flesh and you follow his directions. you return to the room with the first aid kit in your hand and set it on the table. you grab an alcohol wipe and unpacked it. “this is going to sting a bit,” nodding, he deeply inhales and shuts his eyes as you press the antibacterial cloth on the small cut near the corner of his mouth, and then one on his temple. you quickly put bandaids on both places before you quickly examine his face once more. seeing as you’ve cleaned up the wounds, you sit down on a chair in front of him and ask, “now tell me what happened.” this seems to crack him, because once the last syllable passed through your lips, jinhyuk spilled it all. how he suffered a terrible drug problem that fluctuated throughout his early college years, after his grandmother passed away. he tried to control himself but it wasn’t going away soon. he changed dealers many times before he found them. he bought it from them, but hadn’t opened it up since he bought it. he felt that his grandmother wouldn’t be happy seeing him being the way he was. “I haven’t touched them since I bought them and honestly, I even tried giving it back to them, but they didn’t want to take it. they wanted the money instead.” jinhyuk was near tears at this point, and even though you were mad at him for blowing you off like that, you felt bad for him. “listen, jinhyuk. i’m so sorry that you went through the experience that you went through. and I hope life goes on well for you.” nodding silently, his lip quivers and he looks away from you. he wipes his eyes with his sleeve and says, “here let me walk you back.” he gets up but by the weakness in his knees he can barely stand up straight. you insist that he stays seated and head to the door, and before you leave he says, “hey, y/n, thank you for tonight. if it’s alright with you, once I have things sorted out, I’d like to take you out again.” a small smile forms on your lips before you agree, “I’d like that. I’ve got to go; curfew’s about to start.” understandingly, he bids you farewell, and you leave to the direction of your dorm.

as you’re walking home, it dawns on you that one thing didn’t strike you in the moment; when x1 did anything to anyone, they had never committed such crimes openly. you had to be one of the first people, other than those they attacked, to see them in action. the thought of something happening to you sends shivers down your spine. what if they find you and kill you? they cut you into pieces and toss you somewhere? then you’ll never see the light of life ever again. these thoughts alone are enough to send your mind into a whirlwind of anxiety. you’re so frightened you don’t realize that when you reach the front door of your dorm, your hands shake as you attempt to unlock the door. you must have looked as terrified as you felt because your dormmates began flooding you with questions. “was it that bad?” soobin asked, and you shrugged. “he had to take a call and never came back. but he told me that he’d make it up to me next time.” haseul screeched, “so you like him?” “he’s cute.” a say with a small smile. your dormmates yelp and dance around happily. you laugh at their antics and for a while forget about what brought you distress not too long ago. once you told your dormmates you were going to bed, you sigh and shut the door, leaning against it. before the nervousness crept up in you once again, you felt the overwhelming fatigue hit you first. after showering and changing into your pajamas, you slumped over to your bed and let the sleep take over you.

it’s been a week since the “incident” and everything’s okay. haseul asked you the next day why jinhyuk’s lip was bandaged; you didn’t want to say ‘oh yeah I caught him getting beat up by the members of the city’s biggest gang’, so you relied on your terrible acting skills and shrugged, “did he get hurt? oh nooo.” haseul clearly didn’t pay attention too much, for she just muttered, “yeah, he’s got a cut on his lip and a bandaid on his forehead,” then devilishly smiles at you, “maybe you should call him up and check on him. he is your boyfriend after all.” you rolled your eyes and scoffed jokingly. since the date, really, you haven’t really gotten into contact with jinhyuk. so you decided to text him.

“who are you texting, y/n?” soobin’s voice is awfully close to your ear, and you whip your head around so fast you bump your heads. “ow,” you say simultaneously before you push hers away. “don’t worry about it, nosy.” soobin pouted as you got off the couch and grabbed your gym shoes, fixing them onto your feet. “was it jinhyuk, perhaps?” soobin’s comment lingers with tease and you roll your eyes at her. “maybe, maybe not, who knows? all I know is that i’m heading to the gym, so i’ll see you in a bit, yeah?” soobin dramatically sighed and fell into the couch. “sure, but don’t think I won’t get you back for changing the topic.” you chuckled and yelled into the house, “later!” and you shut door before heading towards the gym. the only way you could’ve gone to the gym from your dorm was by passing through the frat houses, and jinhyuk’s warning stuck in your head. so, with careful steps and wary eyes, you made your way to the rec center. halfway through, you noticed that the absence of people on campus set an eerie silence in the air, but your focus began to shift as you saw you were approaching the gym. maybe this is the part where you slipped up because just as you crossed the street, you didn’t notice the van slowly following your side, the windows tinted. that was your first mistake. you reached the sidewalk just mere feet away from the gym. you popped in your headphones and the music played loud enough to conceal the footsteps coming from the person behind you, that wasn’t there before. that was your second mistake. just as you turned to open the door for the gym, a hand holding a cloth blocked your face, and your vision clouded before blacking out completely. your body went limp and you were swiftly carried over a shoulder before being dragged into the trunk of the same van that was following you from before. that was your third and final mistake.

coterie: two

gang!au x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

darkness is the first thing you see when you gain consciousness again. up, down, left, right, your eyes move to see nothing but pitch black. you try to reach your face to rub your eyes, but can’t because your hands are bound in ropes behind your back. you try to scream but you fail to accomplish that, too, because you feel the sensation of cloth against the bottom half of your face. you let out a strained sound then suddenly, a light flashes on just above your head. the sudden change of atmosphere causes you to shrink up a little and squint your eyes. from the darkness, a figure approaches close. “she’s awake, call the boss.” the voice resonates in the darkroom and the man approaches you closely. the light adjusts and you can see the area surrounding you much clearer now. your eyes focus on the man’s face in front of you and you remember, he was there the night you went out with jinhyuk. the man stood tall, clad in an all-black suit and the ends of his arm sleeves held the ends of a red silk shirt. the buttons of his coat were completely closed, but that didn’t conceal the collar bones and the top of his chest. your eyes then went to his face, and the first thing you notice is his icy gaze on you, his raven hair falling just above his eyebrows, but framing his forehead. a sound of a door opens and you both turn your attention towards it, the man’s earrings moving with the swift movement of his head. the door opens and another source of light floods into the room and a man taller by mere inches than the one in front of you walks in. he approaches closer and you notice that he’s dressed similarly to the other guy, but has a scarf tied around his neck. you see a trace of ink peeking out of his shirt on his collarbone, but you don’t have time to pay much attention to it because the man leans down in front of you. his navy locks cover up his eyes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t see the intense gaze peeking through. “hm.” he mutters then looks back at the other man. “yohan, leave me with her for a minute.” the man shifts his gaze between you and the other man before nodding compliantly and leaving.

now it’s just you and the other man in the room. he stands up tall again and is still looking down at your slightly shaking figure. “don’t worry, we won’t kill you.” he says with a calm smile forming onto his face, contradicting the fear settling in your chest. he pulls out a gun and places it under your chin, and you freeze. tears well up in your eyes as he says, “under one condition. as you know, we never reveal our acts to anyone; and, well, occasionally, we have our moments. we have been caught in the past but it always ends with the same result: we find them and we kill them. but, we’re going to do something different this time. instead of killing you, I have a proposition to make. we will let you live as long as you work for us. we have an important mission that requires as many hands as we need, and we’ve kept our eye on you for some time now. you seem useful enough, so we are willing to use you for our mission. what are you going to do?” as he moved the gun away from you, a flash of emotions overwhelmed you. first, fear that you still can die right now. the gun is still there, albeit not against your chin. second, curiosity: why would they choose to leave you alive? you wanted to get to the bottom of it. third, and probably the most intense emotion you were feeling right now, was anger. how the hell did they expect you to just drop everything, give up on your career, and your future for something like this? he pulled down the cloth covering your mouth and you spoke up, clearing your throat. “I do have some, actually. how long do I have to decide this?” the man checks his watch. “it’s 8:00 right now. you have 15 minutes to decide what you need to decide.” “can I have my phone?” he scoffs at this and narrows his eyes. “why do you need it?” annoyance is evident in your tone as your deadpan, “my friends are worried. I’ve been out of the dorm for almost 12 hours, they deserve some explanation.” thinking long and hard, he hesitates but goes behind you to set your hands free. he gruffly mutters,“no playing around, or i’ll reconsider my decision of letting you live.” you notice the red indents the tight strands of nylon left in your skin, wincing as you move your wrists around. he reaches out into his back pocket and hands your phone to you. upon unlocking it, you find a plethora of missed calls and texts from your roommates, some friends from your classes and lastly, jinhyuk. you decide to text him since he will be the most understanding of your situation. 

it seems as though seconds after you send the message, jinhyuk’s name is lighting up on your phone screen and you see the red and green circles in your peripherals as you look back up at the man, who is blankly staring at you. “can I have a few minutes?” his eyebrows furrow slightly, and you prompt further, “please, I only have a few minutes to give you my decision, I’m working against the clock here.” rolling his eyes, he heads to the door, and before closing it to the other side, he grumbles, “hurry up”. sighing, you pick up the phone and jinhyuk’s frantic “where are you?” is the first thing you hear. you explain the entire situation to him: about how you should’ve been more careful when you were on your way to the gym and how even though you were vigilant, you managed to get kidnapped by x1 and now, the condition they’ve given you. after some moments of silence, jinhyuk says, “look, I don’t think you want to do this, but you’ll stay alive if you do. I suppose you should stay with them. I’ll go to your dorm and explain everything to your roommates- hey don’t worry about it, okay- and I’ll get your things for you. I know one member very well, so I will give him your belongings, alright? as for school, well, I’ll try to talk to higher-ups but maybe you should have, uh, them talk to the school about it. they’ll have to work something out, okay? listen, I know you’re scared, but I need you to make the right decision. you’re smart so I trust you about that and know that no matter what, I’ll always be here for yo-” you don’t hear the rest of the sentence because the guy from earlier is back in the room, and he snatches the phone from your hand. “that’s your time,” the man hangs up the call, then looks at you. “so, what’re you choosing? us or the bullet?” he pulls out the gun and lets the light from the one bulb above you reflect across its body. you contemplate, again and again, then sigh. do you want to be working for the city’s, maybe even the country’s most dangerous criminals? your life is more important than your career at this point; in order for you to have a future, you have to be living, right? you look up at the man, who’s expectantly awaiting an answer. “well then? what’s it gonna be?” you bite your lip nervously and tell him, “I’m going to call my university and let them know that I’ll be putting a pause on my academics. and if they ask why, well, I’ll just tell them my life is on the line.”

coterie: three

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

you were no longer bound with ropes, nor was the cloth restricting your mouth from speaking coherently. you were now being guided out of the dark room, up a set of stairs, where the gradient from the darkness to bright lights became clearer. you were in the basement of wherever you were. as the man leads you out, you find yourself walking through a lavish hallway, with marble tiles under your feet contrasting against the white and gold decor around the house. your mouth drops open as you walk into probably, no, the biggest living room you’ve ever seen. two sets of staircases lead up on either side to a separate floor of the residence. “welcome to the x1 mansion.” the man says, standing behind you with his hands in his pocket. “I’m afraid I haven’t introduced myself,” you watch closely as he approaches closer to you. by instinct, you move back with every step forward he takes until your back hits the cushion of a couch. he reaches out to offer a handshake. “I’m seungwoo. han seungwoo, and I am the leader of the gang. it’s nice to formally meet you..” you hesitate to give him your name, and you don’t shake his hand. this causes him to close his hand, clutching the fingers together and forming a fist, then said hand goes back into his pocket and he cracks up. “don’t be scared, you’ve done the right thing. at least you’re not dead. now, let’s try that one more time. it’s nice to meet you...” “y-y/n y/l/n.” you stutter out, keeping your eyes glued to the tile, not daring to look back at him in the eye. “y/n. there’s one thing you should know: after today, everything that was once you will not be you anymore, or until we’re done with you. we’ll speak with your school, and they will allow you to take a gap year or two. don’t ask me why I know this, someone on the school board owes me a favor, so school: don’t worry about that. as for your friends and family, I wouldn’t dare let you leave the house and meet them just yet, so I would rather you call who you want to and speak with them.” he saunters over to the kitchen from the living room, you following his steps with caution. he grabs an apple and bites into it before saying, “because also after today, I’m changing your SIM card and I’ll deactivate your personal phone number temporarily. now, it means your sole focus and purpose will be to do as I say. and trust me, with the way we’ve been watching you this past week, it would be foolish to not put you in this mission. you’re skilled, y/n, whether you know it or not.” seungwoo looks at you and you see maybe a glint of hope in his eyes. “so, in short, yes you can speak to whoever you need to speak to. you have a few hours, then we’ll have jinhyuk drop your things by this evening. also, we have a spare room for you to stay in. that will be yours from today on. I can show you where that is, follow me.” a million things are going through your head right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that you trail closely behind seungwoo up the carpeted stairs, into a smaller area, then a hallway, where he then opens the door to the last room at the end of it. you follow him in and take in the room. it’s much bigger than the college dorm you’re used to, and it’s quite well kept for a spare room. “right, well, I will leave you to it. remember, you only have a few hours, then we deactivate your SIM card. let me know if you need something.” and with a curt nod, he leaves you in the large room, closing the door behind him. 

you sit on the bed and take a moment to digest everything. your kidnappers chose you because they think you’re useful, and you have no idea what they want from you. they kept you alive and are having you live with them, and somehow you’re okay with it. you don’t feel any sort of emotion; in fact, you may just be shocked. you look around and examine the details of the room, these thoughts making your head pound. you wince and press your hand against your head. closing your eyes, you can’t believe how much you’ve experienced within the past twenty-four hours alone. there’s a lot. but, you know what you need to do right now. you look down at your phone, and call up soobin. “hey, how are you? no I’m okay, things are really weird...” you explain everything to her in great detail, and within that explanation, she gives you small reactions whenever something stroke her as odd or even shocking. luckily, you’re able to tell haseul everything as well. “listen, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see you guys again. in fact, I think this phone call may be the last you hear from me for a while, so I want you guys to know that I love you guys. you guys are my roommates, but you two are my best friends first, or even my family. I’ve always been tested with trials and tribulations, you two know this. this is another test that I must pass, but I wish I was able to see you guys one more time.” you cry, tears streaming down your cheeks. you hear the girls sobbing on the other end of the phone. “we’ll always think about you and hope for your safety, y/n.” soobin hiccups. “and don’t worry, we’ll never forget you, we guarantee that. stay safe, y/n. we love you too.” haseul’s voice wavers throughout the most of it, but you can still catch the words. “okay, guys, I’m going to need to hang up. if you guys can please just send all my things with jinhyuk when he comes to receive them, I’ll be extremely grateful.” they follow your requests and you hang up the phone before falling back on the bed. the tears keep falling so you assume only one thing: the aftershock is hitting you now. all your emotions are sporadically leaving you in a big burst, and you need to let it happen. you regret your decision to be here for a minute, once you’ve calmed down a little. but that’s just the thing: the lamenting was short-lived because when you close your eyes again, the image of the gun resting under your chin shows up in front of you and you shake your head, trying to rid yourself of the cold sensation the metal object gave you. “no, I made the right decision.” you console yourself repeatedly before gaining enough strength to push yourself off the bed, and you went over to the bathroom and washed your face with cold water. only then do you get a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot from crying, tear-stained face and a red nose. not to mention, you’re still in the baggy gym shirt and leggings your wear to the gym and your wrists have started to recover from the lack of circulation they experienced mere hours ago. you take in a deep breath and once again, splash your face with the water. strangely enough, you don’t know why, although you feel much better now, this curiosity within you arises again. suddenly, you want to know everything about this “mission” and why you’re such a crucial part to it.

you hear a knock coming from the closed door of your room, and you ask in a hoarse voice, evident with melancholy, “who is it?” “ms. y/l/n? your luggage has arrived.” a woman’s voice is heard from the other side of the door, and you go over and open the door, to reveal a middle-aged woman, in ordinary clothing with two suitcases. behind her, is jinhyuk with some more of your belongings. your eyebrows furrow in confusion and jinhyuk seems to pick that up from you, so he nods his head in understanding and comes into your room.  the woman enters first, leaving your suitcases at the edge of the bed, before telling you, “I’m soonja. I work for the men, like their butler. mr. han has asked me to start taking care of you as well, and I am delighted to do so. you see over there,” she points to a phone sitting on a small table just near the headboard. “that’s how you can call me and ask me for anything. so please do let me know when you need anything.” she gives you a sweet smile and you reciprocate it, before thanking her and she takes her leave. now, it’s just you and jinhyuk. “are you okay? did they hurt you?” jinhyuk examines your face, holding it in his hands. you give him a small smile, “I’m okay, I promise.” jinhyuk sighs before his hands fall to his side. “that’s a relief.” you two share a moment of silence together before you speak up. “I’m actually glad you’re here. I needed to talk to you.” jinhyuk motions for you to continue, and very carefully, you ask, “what are we? what is our relationship? sure, it started out as a date, but I want to give a name to this,” you point between him and you. “what do you want it to be?” jinhyuk asks you, and in all honesty, it throws you off-guard. if he were to ask you this a few days ago, maybe you’d say that you were a couple in the works. you don’t know now, you don’t know if you see anything in him. yeah, he’s handsome, but your heart doesn’t flutter when you see him, you don’t think about him all the time, and more importantly, you don’t know if you see him as anything more than a friend. but, perhaps, you need time. so that’s what you tell him. “I want to see you as more than a friend, jinhyuk, I really do. but, I don’t know if I see it right now. maybe it’s just this entire situation, but I’m so confused, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t differentiate from wrong and right anymore.” jinhyuk gives you a smile, but you can detect a hint of bitterness behind it. “don’t worry about it, then. what’s important is that you are alive right now.” you hold his hand and his eyes shoot up and meet yours. “if you wanted us to be more than friends, then I’m so sorry, I truly am. I’d love for us to try again in the future sometime, but I don’t know what my future here has in store for me. so do me a favor, will you? after you leave here today, live your life as you want to. go out with other people, love them, and most importantly, appreciate your freedom. you don’t know how much I would love to be in your position right now.” jinhyuk’s eyes water, and you quickly wrap your arms around him. “hey, don’t cry. I’ll be fine, okay? and also, take care of haseul and soobin for me? they mean more than the world to me. hey, thank you for everything.” jinhyuk sobs quietly, his shoulders moving with pain. then he pulls back from your embrace and wipes his eyes. “I should go. be safe, please, y/n. promise me you’ll make it out good.” you smile sadly as he heads to the door and just before he leaves, you whisper out, “I promise.”

coterie: four

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

a/n: mild mentions of violence and cursing, so proceed with caution.

shortly after jinhyuk left, you unpacked all your belongings and put them up in their respective places. the last thing you unpacked was a photo frame, that contained a picture of you displaying a toothy smile, with either of your arms hooked around soobin and haseul. you smiled at the memory when this picture was taken: it was your freshman year, and you attended a bonfire, to celebrate the end of the first semester. by then, you already knew the girls and were thrilled to learn that for future semesters, you were allowed to choose who you wanted to share your dorm with. the three of you were inseparable since then. fresh tears well up and threaten to fall from your eyes before you quickly wipe them dry with the back of your hands. you had then grabbed a fresh pair of pants and a clean t-shirt before heading to the shower. once the hot water hit your body, the tenseness you didn’t realize you were holding in your muscles was let go, the heat relaxing you.

you leave the shower, now changed into more decent clothing than before and opened your phone to see this text. your eyes scan the texts from the unknown number before you quickly link back that it’s someone in the house. you take a deep breath and begin heading down to the main living area. once you reach there, you see seungwoo lounging on one of the many couches in the room. cross-legged, with his hand in his palm, elbow resting on his other hand and knee. “finally. I was going to see if you had managed to find a way to escape or something.” he jokes, but seeing as you didn’t react to it, his face straightens out. “give me your phone.” you don’t hesitate, and you practically push the device into his open hand. “relax, y/n. you seem to have a lot on your mind. how’s this, I’ll call in everyone else, and you can meet them while I change your SIM card. then, once I get back, whatever questions you have, ask me, okay?” with a small smile, he sets off into another direction, and you hear a “guys!” from him. it echoes in the house and there’s a short-lived silence, before you hear a group of voices, from all around you, it seems. from the stairs descending, from the other hallways, all getting closer. one by one, each boy enters the room, until there are ten men, all of different heights and hair colors, yet seem to have a common dress code among them: variations of black suits and accents of red, except for one boy who’s got a faded red blazer on, with all black everywhere else. they all stare at you, eyeing you up and down, analyzing you. embarrassed, your eyes shoot down to your feet and suddenly, your shoes are the most interesting thing in the room. it felt weird knowing that there were ten pairs of eyes settled on you. a surge of confidence rushed through you and to your surprise, you lifted your head once again, and scanned the appearances of all the boys.

“ah, I see you’ve met the rest of the team.” seungwoo’s voice is once again heard, and they turn to him. “we don’t know her, hyung.” one of the boys, with lilac hair says. “at least, not all of you guys know her.” a familiar boy says, and he looks you up and down again and you remember. he was also there the day jinhyuk got beat up. in fact, you vividly remember his threat to jinhyuk, i’ll slice your fucking arm off and shove it up your ass rings through your head and you shiver. “introduce yourself,” seungwoo speaks up and all of a sudden you’re on the spot. “I’m y/n y/l/n. I...have been told that I would be an important asset to this, uh, team. thanks.” you give a small bow and a tight-lipped smile. seungwoo gives you a small clap, and nudges the boy next to him. “well, it’s your turn. introduce yourselves to her. go down the line.” you already knew seungwoo, and so the boy standing next to him was around the same height as him. he had black hair, parted in the middle. “name’s seungyoun.” next to him, is a slightly shorter boy, with gray hair that’s a little messily styled. “hey beautiful, I’m hangyul.” he shoots you a wink and the next boy starts, “I’m wooseok.” he gives you an intense glare, and you try not to focus too much on it as a familiar face appears in front of you. you know this guy, his name is- “I’m yohan.” right, he was the one you met in the basement also. a boy shorter than him, with a smile, says, “I’m dongpyo, it’s nice to meet you!” this causes you to think, the boy seems too lively to be a part of a dangerous gang like this; what exactly made him a member of x1? the next boy causes you to tense up because it’s the guy from earlier, who was examining you and the one from the jinhyuk thing. “my name is eunsang.” he fixes his hair and gives you a deathly glare. the one next to him, you don’t recognize, but it seems as if he recognizes you. his blonde hair moves as he introduces himself, “I’m minhee.” he may have been the third person with the other two during your date with jinhyuk, but you could’ve sworn he also had dark hair. his face flashed in your memory and you confirm that it is the same guy. the guy with the red blazer looks at you with big eyes and says, “hyungjun.” another boy next to him, who has a hard time keeping eye contact with you, softly says (you had to lean in a little to hear him) “my name is junho.” and the last boy, the one with the lilac hair waves loosely, “I’m dohyun.” 

it’ll take you some time to fluently pair up the names with the faces, but it seems that seungwoo has other plans. “y/n, now that you’ve met the members, do you have any questions for me?” all eyes are on you yet again, and sigh and look at seungwoo, “can I ask you, why me? I get it, you said I was useful and stuff for your mission, but I’d like to know what the hell is going on here. if you’re going to make me a part of your team, you should at least tell me what I’ll be doing, or at the very least, keep me in the loop of things.” seungwoo scratches the top of his head, thinking, before sighing and muttering, “all right, everyone, sit.” you sit on the couch directly behind you and the boys all shuffle around the room to sit, while seungwoo stands in the middle. “the boys already know everything, but I want to run through everything again, because I didn’t put you in the picture, y/n. so, here it is: we’ve been the city’s biggest and most powerful gang for a couple of years now. we started in 2019, and now being 2021, we have only gained power and fame. but, now we’ve hit a point where we must go big. think larger scales. more money, more power. therefore, we’ve devised a master plan, and instead of only a few of us on this job, we needed all hands on deck. that’s where you come in, y/n. as I’ve mentioned earlier, while speaking with you, I told you that you’re quite skilled. when we heard that you had caught a few of our members, my instinct reaction was that I wanted to kill you.” you were worried when you heard him saying it so casually, and seungwoo continues, “but, I later got to learn a bit more about you, and then I decided to send out my sources to watch you for a week. and let me tell you, y/n, over that week, you exhibited many qualities that would be useful for our team. in fact, I feel that you would be a good fit for any of us.” any of us? what does that mean? “seeing the confusion on your face, I guess I forgot to mention something. your first task will be to choose who you want to work with for the remainder of this mission. we’ve collected one thing from each member, including myself,” seungwoo says and walks over to the other side of the room, where a glass bowl contains a plethora of objects.

once the bowl is in his reach, he holds it steady with both hands and heads back over to you. “you choose an item, and whoever that item belongs to, that’s going to be the person you will be paired up with for the rest of the mission. did you get it?” you nodded quietly and looked inside the bowl. seungwoo placed the bowl in your hands and softly said, “good luck,” before heading back to where the rest of the members stood. you set the glass bowl down onto a small coffee table to the right of you, and examine its contents. you saw all kinds of trinkets in it: a king card from a stack of playing cards, a pen, a mini rubik’s cube, a necklace with a silver ‘x1′ dangling in the center of it, a thin black leather bracelet, a poker chip, a 1000 won bill, a shot glass, a bluetooth earpiece, a ninja star and a pair of pliers. before you chose an object, you looked back up at all the members. they seemed to have their eyes fixed either on you or the glass bowl. now the ball was in your court. the tension in the room was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. “well?” seungwoo pushes and your eyes go back into the bowl. after much thinking, you settled on a decision. you breathed in and reached for it inside the bowl. and once it was in your hand, you pulled it out and showed it to everyone else.

a/n: what did you choose? let me know in the comments!!

coterie: the shot glass (1/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: song hyungjun and y/n

a/n: mentions of alcohol, and mild swearing, so proceed with caution.

“that’s mine,” the boy wearing the red blazer says, and you’re trying to think of his name, before seungwoo says, “alright, so y/n, you’re paired with hyungjun. hyungjun, take her with you and explain what you do.” you look back at hyungjun, and he’s got this empty look in his eyes. even though they are looking back at you, they seem to respond back with voidness. soon, all the boys dispersed into different directions, including hyungjun. you blinked and stood where you were. hyungjun halts and turns around, rolling his eyes, “well, aren’t you going to follow me?” you raise your eyebrows at the cold tone he speaks to you in and nodding a little, you catch up to him before he stuffs his hands in his pockets, and leads the way. you and hyungjun walk down the endless hallway, silently, him a few steps ahead of you. he finally reaches a door and opens it before entering the room and leaving the door open, for you to come into. he sits on his bed and faces you. “so, you chose me? I have to say, you didn’t seem like the kind of person to choose a shot glass. you like alcohol?” you stand there bewildered. just a few seconds ago, this guy seemed like he wanted nothing to do with you and he could care less about you, period; why did he all of a sudden show interest in you? you replied, “I don’t know why I chose it. I’m not a huge drinker, but I don’t shy away from a beer once in a while. and what do you mean by ‘kind of person’?” hyungjun hears your answer and blows a raspberry, falling back onto his bed. “boring. you’re no fun, that’s what I meant by ‘kind of person’. I was clearly right, you don’t seem like a party person or much of a drinker. well, I’m sorry to tell you that that’s exactly what I do, as part of this gang. I’m a party animal. I like to dance, drink, have fun and my main job in the gang is to keep an eye out for any specific targets seungwoo hyung tells me about or even specific clients who’ve stepped off on the wrong foot with us. capisce?” 

hyungjun gets back up to gauge your reaction. you don’t seem too keen about going out and partying, he thinks. you seem like a simple girl, who doesn’t go out partying often. he almost feels bad that you picked him, of everyone. almost. “forget it, it doesn’t seem like it’s your forte. it’s not like you give off ‘party’ vibes, you know?” you really aren’t because you never used to do that in your school days. that was really the only thing holding you back, otherwise, you wouldn’t have been caught at a party over your dead body. but, now things are different. you aren’t in school any longer. what do you have to lose now? “if you don’t like it, you’re more than welcome to choose someone else-” you cut hyungjun off, putting your hand up and bringing him to a stop. now you have a goal: hyungjun had this perception of you being this plain jane. nothing wrong with it, but somehow, him insinuating this fueled this feeling of wanting to prove him wrong. now, you were willing to go to extremes if it meant you were going to change his perception of you, because hell, you don’t like it. “I won’t leave. I’ll work with you, tell me what I need to do.” hyungjun noticed this change of demeanor and was stunned, to say the least. of course, he didn’t let this show on his face too much, only responding with an “oh?” you nodded confidently, and raised your head high. “okay, well, tomorrow’s friday, so you know what that means. be ready by 10 p.m., and I suggest if you’re someone who’s not a night owl, maybe take a nap or something because we will be up all night. also, give me your phone number.” you fish your phone out of your back pocket, and then realized that seungwoo changed your SIM card, so now, you don’t know what the phone number is. “I don’t know it,” you sheepishly tell him, to which hyungjun dramatically sighs. “alright, give me your phone, then. I’ll put in my number myself.” he takes the mobile device and presses in the ten digits. handing back your phone, he shoos you out with his hand, “now go, I’m tired as fuck.” scoffing, you’re about to reply when he shoves you out of his room and shuts the door in your face. how rude. 

you’ve got to say, partying is not something you would’ve preferred wasting your time on, but you needed to prove a point to hyungjun. in fact, hyungjun was surprised that you were still going with him, obediently following his directions. in the first few times, it was clear that you didn’t go to too many parties. one day, one week, and two weeks pass by and you’ve gone to these parties with hyungjun, and it went on like a routine. hyungjun would walk in, and his feet gravitated him to the bar, where he would throw back his head and swallow shot after shot. then he’d be a part of the mosh pit. you, with your one beer (if you wanted to spice it up, you’d go for a margarita), would sit back in one of the corners, next to a group of friends gossiping or a couple getting hot and heavy. hyungjun knew that you were new to this: you didn’t even have proper clubwear in the beginning. but, you didn’t care. you just did as he told you to: observe the place and not be drunk enough to where you couldn’t navigate your way out of the club. your relationship with him was getting better, you would say: in the beginning, he would barely ever talk to you, and the times he did, he would keep the conversations short. however, after spending enough time with him, you realized that hyungjun’s actually a hardcore softie. he has this tough exterior, but in reality, the boy uses mud face masks and holds his hair back with a bunny ear headband (you also found this secret stash of hyungjun’s pictures with these really cute filters... the boys don’t even know about them). he’s got quite the sense of humor also; dry, sarcastic comments are often exchanged between the two of you ( “please, keep talking, I only yawn when I’m super fascinated”, “hey, remember when I asked for your opinion? me neither.” “can you do me a favor, and kindly fuck off?” etc). at times, you still can’t believe that you assimilated here, with your kidnappers, now, your boss and colleagues. you definitely think that hyungjun had some part in this; he helped you feel more comfortable here, whether or not that was his intention. you gradually began to grow more empathetic towards him. “business” has been slow, in that sure, you and hyungjun had been doing what seungwoo asked you guys to do, but you haven’t been assigned anything too crazy. until now, at least. you were in your room, binge-watching the latest drama.

just as the drama was getting good, hyungjun barged into your room, leaving the door wide open, and stood by your bedside. he was blocking the view of the television, and you tried to look around his head, but it followed the movements of your own head. “what?” you shut off the tv and looked back at him. you noticed something different in his eyes; a fiery passion, you wanted to say. “it’s time. we’ve officially been given our biggest assignment yet. this is the one we’ve been waiting for.” your ears perked up at this, and you gave hyungjun your full attention as he broke down the details for you. the owners of the biggest chaebol were throwing a birthday party for one of their family members in the biggest casino in the city. you two were to pose as attendees (”they shouldn’t be able to find us suspicious, so be as natural as you can” hyungjun tells you) and keep an eye out for the people that were attending. “they’ll invite the most influential people in the entire country, which will be useful information for us, when we relay this information back to seungwoo hyung, he’ll know where to go from there.” you nod, and before you can ask anything, hyungjun asks, “do you have anything fancy enough to wear to the casino? if not, we may have to go shopping. or, well, you’ll go, with soonja ahjumma. the party’s in three days, okay? we can’t afford to mess anything up.” you sigh out, “I’m not sure if I have anything fit for the occasion, so I probably would have to go with ahjumma.” hyungjun nods and turns around to leave the room, but just before he leaves, he spins his head back to look at you. “remember, three days. I’ll see you then.” and he walked back to your door and was heading out, while you went to the phone and called soonja, and in the midst of all this, you didn’t notice hyungjun stop in his tracks and turn back to look at you, this unusual feeling rising in his chest.

coterie update: first of all, thank you all for being patient! this week has definitely been a crazy one for me, but I’ve survived it! that being said, coterie: the shot glass part 2 draft is complete! so please look forward to it by sunday, at 7 am cst!

coterie: the shot glass (2/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: song hyungjun and y/n

a/n: a hint of alcohol, cursing and violence, so proceed with caution. THIS ONE’S A LONG ONE.

hyungjun lumbered back towards his room. the image of the way you attentively listened to his instructions was implanted in his head. hell, every time he blinked that’s what he saw. the erratic beating of his heart frightened him, to say the least, and he was part of a gang. whatever, he thinks, it’s nothing. he opens the door to his room and checks the time. it is far too early to go out and party and far too late to get dressed for one, so he decides maybe he’ll attempt to get in a good night’s sleep. he hasn’t done so in forever, he feels, and immediately relaxes into the sheets as he throws himself onto his bed. it doesn’t take long for him to groggily blink up at the ceiling, the image of the pure beige plaster begins to darken, then it becomes dark as night. someone who lived normally like anyone else; with a family and friends and surrounded by an environment where people loved him and he loved them back. that was hyungjun a mere four years ago. everything was great and he couldn’t have been more grateful. one day, he was on his way back from school and was imagining his mother opening the door for him with a wide smile and a big hug, and his sister would ruffle his hair before she’d leave to the nearby cafe to study and within a few hours, his dad would be home, too, and they’d all come together as a family for dinner. that’s how it was every night. he came home that day to find his mother, his father, and his sister dead, their bodies limp on the ground surrounded by pools of blood. the state of shock captured him so bad that he wasn’t able to cry or anything. hyungjun’s eyes shot open and he sat up swiftly on his bed, heavily breathing. he looked over at the green numbers lighting up his alarm clock and it read 4:39 a.m. memories of that night still haunt him to this day. 

he remembers what was going through his head that day. what happened? a thousand questions seemed to ring in his head, and then he heard a knock on the door. terrified, hyungjun grabbed the first thing in sight that could work as a defense weapon and carefully opened the door, to reveal his neighbor, seungwoo. “may I come in?” hyungjun was reluctant, and seungwoo picked up on this and told him, “I’ll tell you what happened.” and one thing led to another, and hyungjun learned that a gang called the fangs allowed hyungjun’s father to borrow some money but didn’t tell him about interest. when hyungjun’s father returned the money that he originally borrowed, they grew furious and threatened to kill him and his family. when he asked seungwoo how he knew this, seungwoo told him that the fangs were a rival gang. seungwoo asked hyungjun to join his team so that he would work towards avenge the death of his family. it didn’t take long for hyungjun to consider his decision. in what seemed like a split of a second, hyungjun joined the gang, and seungwoo gave him the task of being the party boy (seungwoo didn’t want him to be dealing with people explicitly, as it could’ve been sensitive for him in the beginning). this mission, regarding the casino, is extremely important to hyungjun, as the gang that killed his family happened to work for the biggest chaebol in the country. seungwoo told him that they were to get any information regarding the identities of those who may be more informed about the fangs. the first thing hyungjun thought of after hearing about this assignment was you. what was this? suddenly, why did he find himself paying attention to the way your eyes sparkled when you spoke about your friends or the way you smiled at him when he replied to you in sarcastic remarks. he started thinking about how the little things you did, like guiding him through the crowded clubs with a firm grasp around his wrist, and even you making sure he took aspirin after a massive hangover, he looks forward to these events. his heartbeat accelerates and he wants to see you as much as he can. coming to think of it, he doesn’t remember the last time he’s felt this way. ever since his family was killed, he hasn’t felt much emotionally. sure, he gets happy or sad once in a while but this warmth that you’ve kindled in his chest couldn’t be explained by him. so, he decided to ask for some help. 

he headed to eunsang’s room, feet dragging slightly because it’s still early as fuck. a few knocks later, he hears faint groaning and footsteps approaching, and then a grouchy “who is it?” follows. “eunsang, it’s me.” he door cracks open to reveal a fraction of a disheveled eunsang, who’s still half-asleep. “what happened that you had to wake me up deadass in the middle of the night? is someone in danger?” “I tell you everything, bro. I need to ask you: am I a happy person? someone who’s content and happy with the way things are in my life?” eunsang rolls his eyes, and deadpans, “if I had the energy, I’d slap you back into your senses, hyungjun. it’s four in the fucking morning. you’re my pal, so I’m saying this nicely, please let me go back to sleep.” without hearing a response, eunsang shut the door and left hyungjun standing there, a huff escaping him, “what an ass.” and so his feet take him back to his room, and he falls on his bed, stomach first, and a pout forms on his lips as he begins to fall asleep yet again. the next three days pass by in a breeze, although you and hyungjun have not seen each other as much as you have before this. you assumed this assignment must’ve had its kinks that needed to be worked out and you let him be. but, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t miss seeing him. sure, in the beginning, you were apprehensive about opening up to him. but gradually as you spent more time together, naturally you became more comfortable around him. and it wasn’t until these last three days that thoughts began to appear in your head. you would sit back and wonder what his hair would feel like, or are his hands warm, and has he always looked this handsome? you attempted to distract yourself from these thoughts and you went with soonja to a few stores, where you went to look for a dress fit for the evening. once you found the perfect one, you wasted no time purchasing it (soonja stopped you as you were reaching for your wallet, and said that hyungjun insisted that he’d buy it, before passing his card forward to the cashier). 

finally, the ‘big night’ was here: you had just finished getting ready and you heard a knock on your door. “miss y/n, are you ready? mr. song is waiting for you.” you grabbed your bag and nodded, before leaving your room and following soonja outside. leaning against a black audi is a sharp-dressed hyungjun, clad in a black suit, white shirt, and a black bow tie. hyungjun looked up at you from his watch and was stuck staring. you were ethereal. a forest green dress adorned your body beautifully, and you paired it with diamonds and nude heels. you had a light layer of makeup on and let your hair sit on your shoulders. hyungjun could’ve sworn he felt his heart beating out of his chest as you walked down the stairs, approaching him slowly. “close your mouth, buddy, or a fly will go in.” you teased and hyungjun blinked back. “you look...wow.” a light blush tinted your face and you shyly looked away. “thanks. you clean up well, too, song.” you patted his shoulder, and went to sit in the car, hyungjun’s eyes on your every move. he sat in the car and began driving to the casino. once again, you went over the plan: you two were to separate and give off the look that you were both attendees. hyungjun informed you of the people you needed to keep your eye on; the heads of the biggest chaebol, and their families (they’re the ones throwing the party). they held quite a bit of power, so you were determined to get information of any kind tonight. it didn’t take long and before you know it, hyungjun was parking the car. the night started young, you and hyungjun went different directions. you gained a bit of information here and there, and so did hyungjun. he wasn’t far enough to where you were out of his line of vision, so he could keep an eye on you and that certainly did not help him; hyungjun tried not to focus on the way the dress fit the contours of your body nicely, showing off all the right curves in all the right places, or how your lips glistened due to the lip product you had on. he wonders what that texture must feel like, then shakes the thoughts out of his head. what was he doing? 

in the midst of this, on the other side of the room where you stood, you mindlessly sipped a tall glass of champagne, with the little information you gained. you only managed to hear some women talking about how a family owed them money, and their kid was in college, and that the kid should’ve studied hard to get scholarship money instead. interrupting these thoughts, a younger man approaches you. he’s got the typical rich boy look, a cocky little smile on his face. the heavy scent of cologne throws you off as he stops in front of you, a glass in one of his hands, and his other one shoved into his pocket. “I haven’t seen you around here before, are you new to town?” you cock your head to the side, and sip on your drink. “not really. I just don’t come around this area too often. I normally don’t have time to go to places like this.” he chuckles and reaches up to scratch his eyebrow. “well, it’s my pleasure to meet you. I’m seo namjun. as in seo industries.” you feigned surprise, and beamed, “wow, the seo industries? how is that?” you pretend to show interest and he doesn’t suspect a thing, and he’s telling you all about the properties they own when his free hand rests on your forearm and moves up along to your shoulder. you shudder at the calloused feeling, and he notices. “I can make you happy, sweetheart. all you need to give me is one night, it’ll be the best night of your life.” and he leans in to try to kiss you. he catches you completely off guard, so much so that you push him back, and his glass slips from his hand and shatters on the ground, shards of glass mix with ice cubes. this seems to trigger something in him, and his eyes snap back to you.

“what are you doing, leave m-” your cut off by namjun’s harsh grip on your face, his large hand roughly squeezes your face between his fingers. your eyes dart around you and it’s unbelievable how no one comes to help you, or even notice what is happening. and those who do, just stand and watch the scene unfold. namjun clenches his jaw and says, “no girl has ever refused me like that. how dare you?!” and his head dives in for a forced kiss. the only thing you can do is attempt to hold your hands out to stop him and you shut your eyes. but you don’t feel anything. in fact, the grip around your face is gone in itself. you do, however, hear a thud and a groan. you open your eyes to see hyungjun standing in front of you, holding you behind him, and namjun is on the ground, his nose bleeding. “if she said no, then it means no.” namjun only seems to get more infuriated by this and gets up, before swinging at hyungjun. one hit after another, both men fight each other. at this point, there’s a crowd that’s formed around the two and they don’t stop until you start pulling hyungjun back and an older man, who you assume is related to namjun starts pulling him back. “stop it namjun! we are in public! do you have any self-respect?” namjun huffs out, and glares at you and hyungjun one last time, before releasing himself from the man’s grip and walking briskly towards the opposite direction. hyungjun takes you by the wrist and through the crowd of people, outside, until you’re by the car. 

he unlocks the car and you both quietly sit in the vehicle as he starts his drive back home. the ride back home starts out quiet. the tension is heavy in the air. you start off by apologizing, but he cuts you off. “I should be the one apologizing for putting you in a difficult situation. I shouldn’t have even let you come here tonight, your safety was threatened and I-” you rest your hand over his that rests on the gear stick. you notice the small cuts on them, before you softly say, “it’s okay. he didn’t hurt me, all thanks to you.” a small smile forms on hyungjun’s face and your heartbeat reaches your ears.  you two come back home, and walk in the mansion, catching each others’ gaze once more before going towards your respective rooms. it’s been about ten minutes and you’re back in normal clothing, makeup-free and you decide to grab a first-aid kit and head over to hyungjun’s room. he’s just getting out of the shower, freshly dressed. his wounds still aren’t clean enough yet, you think and you have him sit down. opening the small first aid kit, you start by grabbing an antiseptic wipe, muttering “this may sting a little, so bear with me,” before cleaning up the small cut on the corner of his cheekbone and a small slit in his lip. “thank you for being there with me today, I don’t know what would’ve happened. I’m so glad you came before anything could happen.” as you finish talking, you look up to see hyungjun staring at your lips. your silence seems to catch his attention, and he looks back into your eyes. there are small specks of amber in hyungjun’s eyes. they’re pretty. subconsciously, your eyes fall on his lips: plump, pink, kissable. wait, what? hyungjun wastes no time, and surprises you with an arm quickly pulling you flush against him, and he leans in and kisses you. you kiss him back, the faint taste of iron only igniting the fire in you. your hands drop the supplies you were holding and instead fly into his hair. pulling at the chocolate roots elicits a small groan from him, and you’ve decided that this is something you’d never get tired of hearing. after the dire need of oxygen captures both of your attention, you pull back, heavily breathing. a stray hair hangs loose before you and hyungjun moves it away. “I want to tell you something, y/n,” he starts off before telling you how it’s been forever since he had felt like this: happy. “I forgot what it felt like until I met you. after meeting you I began to look forward to the next day, and the day after, and so on.  but you also brought along this heart fluttering sensation in me. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t stop thinking of you”, and you giggle, and widely smile, “I like you too, hyungjun. very much.” and you notice him turn red at your comment and have decided that another thing you learn about him is that he can be cute, whether or not he approved of being so. “so, after all of this, would you like to give us a try?” he offers, reaching to hold your hand. and with a smile, you intertwine your fingers and lean in, “why after this, when we can give us a try now?” before you peck him on the cheek and you exit his room, leaving hyungjun a blushing mess. but he’s your mess, and that’s all you can ask for.

a/n: that’s all for hyungjun... now, who do you choose next? maybe hyungjun wasn’t who you expected.. who did you expect then?  let me know in the comments!

surprise..

up next... coterie: the bluetooth earpiece

coterie: the bluetooth earpiece (1/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: son dongpyo and y/n

a/n: a bit of cursing, so proceed with caution.

you twisted the bluetooth earpiece between your fingers, showing it to the rest of the crowd. and the slightly shorter boy stepped forward, with a nod and a curt grin. “that’s mine,” and seungwoo looks between the both of you before nodding to the boy, “dongpyo, fill her in, then come by my room, I have to give you some stuff. the rest of you can carry on.” seungwoo shot you one last glance before heading back to the hallway you originally came from. the rest of the guys went their separate ways, leaving you alone with dongpyo in the large living room. dongpyo’s attention was brought back to the small device, still in your hand. he walked up closer to you and held out his hand. you were confused, and this caused him to prompt, “my bluetooth?” realizing the situation you were in, your eyebrows shot up and you mumbled an apology and shoved the earpiece into his outstretched hand. “chill out there, buddy.” dongpyo smirks for the first time since you’ve met him (granted, you’ve not known the boy longer than an hour even, but still, he’s got a great smile). “come, you’ve chosen the most fun person on the team, be happy!” he motioned for you to follow him and so you walk up a set of stairs just at the end of one of the many hallways in the x1 mansion. once you reach the top, there’s a door. dongpyo opens the door and moves to the side, “after you,” you thank him quietly and walk in, and are immediately confused. you see all kinds of things in the room: apart from the traditional bed, bathroom and closet, there’s a table with all sorts of knick-knacks on it. a pair of glasses, a comb, a wig, and a few other things, but also a ton of thumbtacks, and a bulletin board sits just on the wall above the table, with tons of things pinned down to it. there’s a small bookshelf with binders, and on the topmost shelf are all sorts of passports. I wonder what he does, you think and you hear him laugh. “can’t you tell yet?” you shake your head, and dongpyo throws his back, snorting. “I’m a con artist, baby. the actor of the gang. think charles ponzi meets the spy kids. what I do around here is simple; whenever seungwoo hyung needs me to find out additional information about someone by going to their residence, I dress up and play the part. he needs me to play a smart college kid, I’ll be the smart college kid. he needs me to be an aspiring chef, I’ll be the aspiring chef. somehow I will find a way to get past security barriers and insert small things in the house, like a small voice bug or a camera. get it?” the only thing that leaves your mouth is, “this is fucking cool.” dongpyo’s eyebrows shot up, “you think so? of course, you do, this is the coolest job in the gang. anyway, as much as I would like to keep talking to you about the greatness that is my job, seungwoo hyung needs me, so I’ll be right back,” and he threw you a peace sign before exiting the room, leaving you standing in the mess. you began to examine dongpyo’s room, this time paying more attention to the details. the first thing your eyes go back to are the things he’s fixated onto his bulletin board. pictures of wealthy looking people, and it seemed that their information (business cards mainly) were also pinned down onto them. he’s crossed off some faces, and put small check marks on the cards, too. there’s some system he follows, and you find it fascinating. 

then, your attention shifts to his bookshelf. on top of it are multiple passports, indicative of their various colors. you pick up the one most familiar to you and check inside. the pages are marked a bit, indicating that he has used this passport multiple times. you look through the other passports and notice that his name and details are different in each of them. what else is expected of a con artist, you think. then, there are small weapons like swiss knives and daggers, mainly. but something catches your eye that you failed to notice before. a photo frame was put down, and its exterior matched the color of the bookshelf. you picked it up and saw the picture it held; a little boy being hugged from behind by a woman, both smiling wide in the picture. they seemed to be at a park or something. “you still in here, y/n?” a voice calls from behind you and you frantically put the photo frame back where it was, your heartbeat accelerating in anxiety. “y-yeah, you have a lot of cool things in here,” you play with your hands, a habit of yours dongpyo would soon be familiar with. you turn back and face him, and he’s holding a sheet of paper and a USB drive in the other hand. “well, I’m glad you are because seungwoo hyung just gave me details on the next mission. I hope you’re good at acting.” you think back to a time in high school where you had to take theatre for your fine arts credit. “I mean, I took theatre in high school? that’s about all I have in terms of experience.” dongpyo snorts, “well, were you any good?” you smile broadly, and tell him that you did a short film for a major grade, it’s recorded and on youtube if he wants to check it out later. you give him the name and information about the video and he says, “I’ll watch this and let you know if you can pull off the mission. if not, I think you may need to choose someone else. if you can’t act, there’s not much you can do for me.” you nod in understanding and let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “alright, well I guess I’ll head over to my room, then. let me know, okay? I don’t wanna waste anyone’s time.” you tell him and you give him a small smile before leaving dongpyo. he finds your short film minutes later, scrolling through youtube for the exact name and publisher. he clicks on it and sits back in his desk chair. in the film, you were a student who liked a guy but kept it a secret, and your best friend ended up stealing him away from you. you also had a fatal illness and the film ultimately resulted in your death. dongpyo was hiccupping as the credits rolled on the screen. he froze and wipes his eyes violently. “ah shit, now what?” he mumbles and goes to wash his face. clearing his throat, he heads towards your room. he knocks and hears your response on the other side. you open the door to reveal a disheveled dongpyo and although you could tell he didn’t want you to notice, you can’t help but grin a little when you see his slightly tear-stained face. “I assume you’ve watched the film already.”

dongpyo goes red at this, and scoffs, “I don’t know why you’d think that, but on an unrelated note, what are you majoring in again?” your face falls a bit, “I was a political science major. until I was dragged here.” dongpyo lets out a sound in shock, “but you were so good! I watched the short film-stop laughing at me- and you were really good! I approve of your acting abilities, and you are now officially my partner in crime! or, well, this mission,” he rubs the back of his head. “so, what do I have to do?” dongpyo asks for permission to enter your room and plops himself onto your bed, sitting cross-legged and you stand in front of him. “well, for starters, how are you with handling fragile equipment? I know for a fact that you’ve never dealt with tiny cameras and stuff but that knowledge is kinda essential for this mission.” you shake your head, “I’ve never. I didn’t even know I would ever be in a situation like this, dongpyo. how would I even imagine how to handle tiny mics or cameras?” dongpyo’s hands go up in defense, “alright, jeez, don’t bite my head off. anywho, that’s not a problem, we have a few weeks till the actual mission so I’ll teach you how to use them. let me tell you about the mission: you know that there are 18 ministries in the korean government. well, the minister of employment and labor has been.. involved with some issues regarding employment in certain areas and basically we have an advantage over them if we succeed this mission because we’ll have proof of their wrongdoings. now the question will arise then: how do we do it? here’s where you come in.” your attention is completely captured now. “you and I need to pretend like we’re a young couple who’ve run away from home in order to stay together forever, you know all that cheesy shit. we’ll persuade him well enough and he’ll have to let us stay. we only need one night. I saw your acting and I think you have the potential, okay? so, you wanna do it?” it takes you a few minutes to process it all, come to a decision and then rethink your decision. your silence tells nothing to dongpyo so he feels himself deflate a little, and gets up. just as he reaches to open your door, your hand comes and grabs his forearm. he turns around, an incredulous look on his face and you breathe out, “I’ll do it.”

coterie: the bluetooth earpiece part 2 will be up by monday, 10 pm cst

coterie: the bluetooth earpiece (2/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: son dongpyo and y/n

a/n: mild cursing, so proceed with caution. this is also quite long, so just a heads up :)))

so over the next few weeks, your days went on in the same routine: you would wake up, have breakfast, watch some tv (currently you watch reruns of running man) and then dongpyo would have you come into a room that he has set up for your training purposes, specifically. here, he taught you how to place bugs and cameras efficiently, he taught you ways to make your acting more sincere and the most important one, he taught you how to not give in under any circumstances. “at times, the people I keep an eye on begin to get suspicious. I usually don’t give them a reason to be so, but sometimes they are smart enough. when that happens, don’t panic. it’ll only weaken your case even more. find ways of distraction, it could be anything. but don’t let them on your tail.” you didn’t get to play around with some of the fancier equipment, as dongpyo probably still didn’t trust you with that stuff just yet. you’re a good learner, you would attempt to argue with him, but he’d snort and ruffle your hair, “not today, pal,” to which you would just pout, and unbeknownst to you, speeding up dongpyo’s heart rate with this action of yours. during your training sessions, you’ve heard dongpyo sing under his breath quite faintly (what can’t he do), and his voice is angelic. he’ll catch himself singing and stop before you notice, but he doesn’t realize that you pick it up the millisecond he starts. one day, you did compliment him about it, and the poor boy had gone red for a solid ten minutes, before hyungjun stopped by and said, “yo, what’s wrong with your face?” all in all, dongpyo’s been nothing but sweet to you, regardless of his outgoing personality. but sometimes, you can’t help but notice that he’ll be caught in his own thoughts. when you ask him something or confirm if you’re doing something right, his eyes are focused in another direction, deep in thought. one day, you thought you could ask him about it. “dongpyo, can I ask you something?” his eyes shifted up from his phone screen to you. “you’re always thinking about something. sometimes when I talk to you, you don’t hear me. why’s that? what’s on your mind?”dongpyo smiled tight-lipped and responded with a lazy look in his eyes, “that’s attentive of you to notice, but I don’t think we stand in a place where we can be this open to each other yet, so let’s drop the topic.” and he shut you down like that, and moved on as if you didn’t even bring it up to start with. “I have to get a picture of you so I can get an ID printed for you. look at the camera,” he pulled out his phone. you felt a slight pang in your chest, but you decided to move it to the side and focus on the matter at hand, so you gave the camera a small and clearly fake smile and he took the photo. you left to your room as soon as you heard the click, unaware of dongpyo’s gaze on your every movement. 

you shut the door and leaned against it, your feet slowly dragging you down. you had no right to be upset, he was technically right. you knew the guy for what, almost a month and a half? what relationship did you guys have and more importantly how close were you two for him to tell this stuff to you? you can’t expect him to open up until he’s ready to. still, you think, why does it bother you that something’s bugging him? and on the other side of the door, dongpyo stood, eyes fixated on your door and his hands shoved deep into his pocket. he sighs and looks away before turning around and walking back to his room. he wants to be able to open up to you, he wants to have long conversations about what’s going on in his head with you. there’s just one problem, and that’s trust. he knew from the second you picked him that there was something different about you, and he was determined to figure it out. but as he started learning more and more about you and your addicting personality, he found that the only obstacle standing in his way was himself. from his childhood up until now, dongpyo had been deceived too many times. he was abandoned as a toddler at the steps of a foster home, and the only memory of that time that he has of his birth parents is a picture of him and his mother. he doesn’t know why they left him there. but that was the first time it felt like he was punched in the stomach; that feeling was betrayal. it continued to happen throughout his school days, where his friends used him to get things out of him. whether it was copying his homework, to more extreme things like sneaking into teacher’s offices to look for answer keys or tests, they all had one purpose; to get the dirty work done and use dongpyo as their scapegoat, when he’d get caught. the only person that he definitely trusted more than anything was seungwoo; dongpyo met seungwoo for the first time outside his school, when his so-called friends crowded him against a wall, threatening him. seungwoo saved him just in time, and since then the two were inseparable until seungwoo graduated. sometimes, dongpyo still can’t help but be hesitant when sharing certain things with him. later, seungwoo took him under his care and told him he could do what he wanted. when he told seungwoo that he wanted to do conning, seungwoo knew where he was coming from. this was a way for him to release his pent-up frustration, he thought. after all, his ability to deceive had been shaped by all those around him, so it makes sense that he’s able to use the techniques that were used on him to deceive others. call it trauma, or call it reluctance, but that’s why he thinks he can do his job in the gang so well. “god, why does everything have to be so complicated?” pulling at his hair, he slumps over to his desk. he’s just about to put his head down when he sees a bright colored sticky note in his peripherals. he doesn’t have those, he thinks and focuses his attention there, and examines it. there’s a series of small doodles on the sticky note: a panda bear, a few hearts here and there and ‘y/n’ written in all sorts of fonts. a smile grows on his face as his gaze lingers over the bright paper fondly. he’d often see you crouched over his desk whenever he’d set up equipment before training you, he’s just assumed you would be taking notes. 

the image of your concentrated face blinks in his head: eyebrows scrunched, eyes focused and your tongue poked out of the corner of your mouth ever so slightly. he remembers the last time he felt like this: it was in high school. sitting next to him in third block, senior year was a pretty girl named sooyoung. she was dongpyo’s everything; he liked her for so long and when he gathered the courage to ask her out, and she said yes, he was elated. they did all the lovey-dovey couple things: went out to the movies on weekend evenings, attended school dances and games together, and hung around the city together. it was love for him, but not for her. one day he found sooyoung near the lockers, with her friends surrounding her, paying her money. he was a bet and sooyoung won. he confided in her when things were rough, and to see that she stabbed him in the back too only made him cower in fear even more. dongpyo remembered the pounding headache that day because it felt like no other. once sooyoung found out that dongpyo knew about the bet, she didn’t even try to reason with him. rather, she scoffed and told him, “did you really think I liked you? get a grip on yourself, dongpyo.” if it didn’t feel like a slap to the face before, it sure as hell felt like one now. he shudders as flashes of the void he put himself in appear in front of him. he closed himself off shortly after graduating; ‘trust no one’ was the mantra running through his head, and it almost swallowed him whole, but he was saved, by seungwoo. point of the matter is, he hasn’t felt like this after then and before you. he saw the liveliness and passion in you ever since you started working with him, and it reminded him of sooyoung a lot. too much, in fact, to the point where dongpyo’s now afraid. even if he does tell you how he feels, which is an obstacle on its own, he is scared you will leave him because that’s always been the case. you’ll reciprocate the feelings and actions before you get what you need and drop him, just like everyone else. a part of him kept telling him that, but the other part of him tried convincing him you were different. “fuck it, I’m not letting my emotions get in the way of this. I have to focus,” he said aloud and shook his head, before getting back to work. fast forward and it’s now a day before “the big night”, and tensions between you and dongpyo have calmed down a lot, but there were unspoken thoughts from both ends lingering in the air between the two of you. dongpyo would often focus his gaze on you, and you started feeling it, your skin heating up from the newfound attention. “we’re only staying there one night, y/n, so pack light, but also pack enough where it seems like we’re running away.” your eyes flicker to his, and you question, “is one night going to be enough?” dongpyo runs a hand through his onyx locks, and nods, “one night is more than enough. we just need to plant cameras and bugs in their house, that’s all.” you nod obediently, and head to your room to start packing. dongpyo calms his nerves; he’s never been nervous about a mission before, and he knows that he’s feeling this way because you’re involved in it with him. 

grabbing your fake ID and passport, you run through the story once more in your head, as you walk to the car, dongpyo already inside. he’s in the back seat, and soonja’s driving, because you two need to take the bus. “once we get to the bus station, we start acting our parts, okay? you never know who’s around.” you had given yourself the name ‘eunji’ and dongpyo was ‘ilseong’. your story was you two were childhood neighbors and your families didn’t want you two to get together so as rebellious youth, for the sake of love you decided to run away and start your lives together. you decided to go to the minister of employment and labor because he happens to find jobs for young people, and manage to stay the night. “here we are, sir. be safe and if you need me, I’m a phone call away.”soonja brakes the car, and you two step out, with your belongings. there seems to be no one around, which is perfect. soonja offers a small smile before driving off. you two look at each other, and dongpyo gives you a small nod, and it’s like an off-on switch. the biggest smile grows on your face as you get into character. at this point, people have started walking towards the bus stand you were dropped off at minutes ago. “wah, ilseong! isn’t in liberating running away from home like that?” dongpyo smiles wide, and an erratic feeling spreads in your stomach. “I’m so happy we decided to do this, eunji. now all we have to do is find a job. I promise to keep you happy.” there’s something else in dongpyo’s gaze that you didn’t see before, and you can’t point out what it is. the bus stopping in front of you interrupts your thoughts and clusters of people simultaneously leave and enter the bus, including you two. you get on, swiping your passes and quickly sit down. a mother and her child sit in front of you. the child smiles giddily at you guys, and asks, “why do you have suitcases? are you going on vacation?” dongpyo laughs at the cuteness of the kid, and ruffles his hair, before interlocking your hands, “we’re moving to a happier place, me and this noona right here,” motioning to you. your cheeks tint red at the unfamiliar word falling from dongpyo’s mouth, and smile back, “your son is very cute, ma’am.” the woman smiles, the corners of her eyes crinkling and she responds, “and so are the two of you. ah, young love. I was around your age when I met my husband, too. I’ll never forget those sweet times.” she begins telling you stories about her and her husband, and just as she finishes, your stop arrives. “eunji, we’re getting off here.” dongpyo stands and helps you up, his hand reached to hold yours. you accept the offer, standing up and grabbing your things before saying goodbye to your co-passengers and getting off the bus. “this way,” dongpyo calls and you follow close behind him. not a long walk later, you find yourselves standing in front of a giant house. you’re surprised there isn’t a gate around the house. nevertheless, you exhale and ring the doorbell. an older woman opens the door and dongpyo just knows: it’ll be a piece of cake for her to let us in. “can I help you?” the woman looks at the two of you and dongpyo begins the story. 

“and so, it would be really helpful of you if you guys can help us out. I know it’s probably too much to ask but I was wondering if you could give us shelter, just for tonight. I don’t want my eunji to freeze to death tonight. even if you just let her sleep here, I’d be grateful for that.” you interject, “no, ilseong, I won’t stay here without you,” and your eyes start to water. the woman, watching this scene unfold in front of her lets out a sound of pity. “I’ll explain everything to my husband later but for now, come in, both of you. I’ll bring out some of my kids’ spare clothing, and my maid will take you to a guest room.” and she lets you into the house. seconds later, a stout woman appears in front of you, before motioning to the stairs, “right this way, please.” you follow her up the stairs and she leads you to one of many rooms in the hallway. “you two may stay here tonight. I will come back if mrs. chan needs me to. until then, please let me know if you need anything.” she bids her farewell and leaves you two in a room. you and dongpyo will share a room, and a bed, tonight. you attempt to keep any mature thoughts out of your head, but it crosses your mind anyway and your breath hitches just thinking about it. sensing your discomfort, dongpyo says, “I’ll sleep on the floor if you’re uncomfortable,” but you cut him off, “no, it’s alright, it’s all an act anyway, right?” dongpyo winces at your choice of words, and quickly sets up. “well, we have no time to waste, I’ll freshen up in the bathroom, you can change here.” you two silently changed out of your clothes, and by the time you were ready, the maid was back. “mrs. chan invites you down for dinner, mr. chan is also here.” you two follow her down the stairs and you walk into a dining room with an older man sitting on one end and the woman from earlier at the other end. “eunji, ilseong, please take a seat. I’ve explained the situation to my husband.” the man then speaks up, “I will help find you a job, young man.” dongpyo beamed, “oh, thank you so much, sir. I knew I could count on you,” the man eyed the two of you for a bit, his gaze lingering on dongpyo a little more analytically. “yes, well, that’s my job.” you eat dinner and the maid then walks you back to the room. the hours tick on by and when you guys are sure everyone’s asleep, the two of you get up and dongpyo sets up the computer, before popping in his bluetooth earpiece, and gloves, along with the bugs and cameras. “you know what to do,” dongpyo tells you and you nod, “don’t worry, just place your first camera so I can connect and keep an eye.” dongpyo gives you a thumbs up and heads out of the room, quietly. he’s placing cameras and bugs in strategic areas, and you, on the bed and watching the laptop screen, pout at the thought that your training has gone to waste because you didn’t end up handling this part. but, you become alarmed as you see some movement through one of the cameras, and it’s not dongpyo. it’s the minister. “dongpyo, come in!” you whisper-shout and dongpyo gets into a corner. “what?” “he’s coming up here, hurry!” the panic is increasing, your heart is racing, and the doorknob begins to rattle, when in comes dongpyo. “he’s not too far, hurry in!” he shuts the door quietly and beelines over to you, moving things that will blow your cover and hiding it. the laptop is moved away from you, and swiftly, dongpyo sits on your lap. alarmed, your eyes widen and dongpyo’s hands cradle your cheeks, “do you trust me?” with your eyes boring into his own, you nod, “of course,” and with that, he inhales quickly and kisses up, catching you completely off-guard. then, you start relaxing into the kiss and kiss back with fervor, hands flying to grip his shoulders. as dongpyo nibbles on your bottom lip, suddenly the door opens, revealing the minister, now shocked at the scene in front of him. you both pull away, and dongpyo shoots up, “oh, sir! I’m so sorry,” he shakes his head, and puts his hands up in defense, “I apologize, I should’ve knocked. I thought I heard noises, but I must’ve been hallucinating. I’m sorry, uh, carry on then,” and sheepishly, he leaves the room, shutting the door.

you sigh and rest your head on the backboard. “I, uh, got most of the cameras up. the important areas, anyway. and the bugs, too, so, we’re done.” dongpyo stutters out. your breathing is heavy, but you softly say, “dongpyo,” and he looks up to see you patting on the spot in front of you on the bed. he complies and shuffled over to sit cross-legged. “hey, look at me.” “I can’t,” dongpyo’s never been this...vulnerable, you think. “you can, you didn’t do anything wrong.” he looks up at you and you swear, you see the smallest tear forming just along his lash line. you rest your hands over his and clutch them, “tell me what’s wrong.” all it took was one second before he completely shattered. dongpyo started crying, telling you everything and anything. “...it’s always been so hard for me to trust people, but then I met you, y/n, and you’ve given me a whole new purpose to this job. I have always held everything in, and after meeting you, I feel like all the pressure that’s been building up is all released.” he wipes his eyes and looks up to find you, tears streaming down your face and a smile on your mouth. “why are you crying?” “I’m just... overwhelmed. I was so worried about you, dongpyo, you don’t understand.” you sniff, using the hem of your shirt to dry your face. “I really like you, dongpyo. you are more than what you show the world, and I have seen it. you’re a true diamond in the rough, and I have never been more lucky for making a choice that I did. you are amazing, dongpyo, in every way. don’t hold anything back. the people that messed with you once can honestly suck it, they didn’t deserve your time. cherish the people who have your back now: seungwoo, the rest of the team and me.” and with that, you pull him in for a hug and squeeze him tight, and he returns the hug with just as much power. “thank you, y/n. thank you so much.” he whispers into your ear and you pull away to leave kisses on his cheeks. “you’re absolutely welcome, my dongpyo.” because from that moment on, he was your dongpyo and that was a fact.

a/n: that’s all for dongpyo…(btw he and y/n made it back safe and sound) who do you choose next? didn’t expect dongpyo? who then? let me know in the comments!

the next installment of coterie will be the rubik’s cube!

hahahaha I felt super inspired this time around so enjoy :))

coterie: the mini rubik’s cube (1/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: kim wooseok and y/n

a/n: some cursing, so proceed with caution.

“who’s is this?” you hold the small, colorful shape between your thumb and index finger, showing into the people in the room. there’s a silence in the air, and then you see the lilac haired boy lean over to “whisper” in the boy next to him’s ear, “hyung, what’s gonna happen now? do you think he’s even going to let her near him? he’s going to lose his shit.” “shh, dohyun. she chose this, after all,” he flicks the younger boy’s arm, who lets out a small yelp and rubs the inflicted area. your stomach churns as you playback the conversation in your head, and you shift your fear-filled gaze to seungwoo. he senses your discomfort and starts, “uh, y/n, you’re going to be working with,” and he gets cuts off by a slightly hoarse voice, “me.” you turn to the owner of the voice and find feline eyes glaring at you with an icy sternness. “i’m wooseok, although I did introduce myself a few seconds ago, you probably forgot my name already.” you scoff, taken aback and the rest of the boys watch the exchange between you two. “well, are you all just going to stand here and watch me?” they look back at wooseok, and one by one, left to different directions, followed by wooseok himself. you stand there in the center of the room, confused as to what just happened. “what now?” you pout, but nevertheless leave towards your room, too. the rubik’s cube is still in your hand, and you forgot it was in your hand until you saw that your hand was tightly clutching onto it. you’re sure that it left some form of indents into your hand, but that doesn’t matter. you only feel shudders when you remember the way wooseok was looking at you, with a fierce glower, while his demeanor seemed quite laid back. his hands were shoved in both pockets and he stood tall, yet slouched slightly; you wonder how that juxtaposition wouldn’t make sense normally, but he made it make sense. your thoughts are interrupted when the phone begins ringing. “hello?” you pick up, and it’s soonja, “miss l/n, mr. kim has called you into his room, and asks that you bring the rubik’s cube with you.” you assumed she was talking about wooseok, and confirmed this assumption when she mentioned the rubik’s cube. “right now?” “if possible, ma’am. he wanted you to come as soon as I called you. his room is on the ground floor, so you will need to return to the living room and it will be a room right in the corner of it.” and she hung up the phone. taking a moment to make sure your hair looks alright, you straighten out your clothes slightly, and proceed to wooseok’s room. 

there is this twinge of anxiety that bubbles within you as you begin getting closer to your destination. why did the other guys insinuate that wooseok was a wrong choice? you try not to think about all the things that could possibly go wrong, and subconsciously wrap your knuckles on the door. “come in,” you hear from the other side, and you twist the doorknob and push your way inside wooseok’s room. once you’re in, you’re left staring. in his room are about six screens, with different images on each screen. it seemed to just be a lot of information, and from what you understand you see IDs, passports, and things that look like official records. “oh, it’s you,” a voice breaks into your thoughts and you see wooseok sitting on a swivel chair, circle glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. if you didn’t know him at all, you probably would’ve gushed over how dorky he looked, but then the way he acted mere hours ago pops into your head. “uh, you wanted to see me?” wooseok’s gaze shifts from your face to your hand, which has the rubik’s cube. he outstretches his own and says, “give me the rubik’s cube.” eyebrows furrowed, you push it into his overeager hand, and he holds it in front of you, twisting the shape between his fingers. “what do you see here?” you’re confused, and it’s obvious in the way you answer, “a rubik’s cube?” he moves it to see your reaction, as he shakes his head ‘no’. “it’s a rubik’s cube to you, but I see an algorithm. I see tons of solutions but only one correct answer.” he puts the rubik’s cube down before turning back to you and folding his arms behind his back. “the screens you see in this room are just that, too. they help me crack these algorithms. and believe it or not, algorithms are more common than you think.” you scratch your arm, “so, what, are you like a hacker or something?” “close. I seek out information. if the team members need to know something about anything or anyone, they come to me. all they have to do is give me an hour or so, and I give them all the information they need.” once you hear this, it takes you a second or two before your eyes shoot up at him, “so when seungwoo told me that he knew all about me,” wooseok cuts you off, adjusting his glasses that slowly slid down. “yep, I gave him all that information.” and as freaked out as you should be, you let out a sound of awe, which takes wooseok aback. 

after he walks you through his entire database, your attention goes back to wooseok. you had preconceptions of the guy before walking into his room; the other members made it seem like he was going to murder you or something. but he’s not as bad as they made him out to be. but, you shouldn’t arrive at this conclusion too quickly, because when you look back up at wooseok, you see he’s stopped explaining and is now standing there, arms crossed and pursed lips. you raise the question, “so, what am I going to do?” wooseok answers this with a heartbeat, “like I’ve said, I know what you’re capable of, which is why I’m going to have you do some digging. as far as codes and stuff go, if you can’t get into something, I’ll take care of that. I’ve hacked into way too many things, so it’s child’s play for me. seungwoo’s already debriefed you, so I’ll tell you what our roles are: the other members need information on their people, what you’ll do is once I’ve hacked into certain systems, make files for each person, get down all the information that is required and then I’ll go through it and send it to the members.” you look back at him and the screens. “yeah, I guess I can do it.” you move your hand towards some of the stuff on the table and are about to examine it, when wooseok yanks your hand back, “what are you doing?!” he startles you with the loud voice he uses, and you free your hand from his grasp, “I was looking around, jeez. don’t have to bite my head off, dude.” you mumble the last part, and wooseok sighs, closing his eyes and resting his thumb and index fingers against his nose bridge. “I apologize for that, I don’t like it when people touch my stuff.” you fold your arms, “well then, how do you expect me to do stuff here?” wooseok blinks back at you emotionlessly, “I’ll get a computer installed in here, don’t worry about that. you’re going to need to make another commitment, in addition to helping me out here, though.” your eyebrow cocks up and he continued, “you’re gonna be my assistant. do whatever I ask you to do.” your eyes widen at this. just what did he want you to agree to? “don’t think wrong, I’ll just need you to run errands for me and occasionally bring me stuff, like food and shit. got it?” you consider the benefits and drawbacks of the job: sure, you’d be safe and sound and aren’t necessarily dealing with people one-on-one, so that’s great, but what if this illegal activity makes it on your record somehow? what would you do then? but then you look up and notice some hint of emotion in wooseok’s face and this was the first time he’s expressed emotion of any form during your conversation. when are you ever going to get an opportunity like this again, you think and you exhale before responding, “alright, I can do it.”

coterie: the mini rubik’s cube (2/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: kim wooseok and y/n

a/n: brief mentions of bullying, cursing, and an overall emotional rollercoaster. it’s good to be back :))

so within the next few weeks, wooseok got a new desktop mailed in along with a second swivel chair. you distinctly remember wooseok calling you over to the room, and when you stood at the doorway, he sent a broad smile your way before pushing a cardboard box over to you. “what’s this?” “oh, it’s your swivel chair that you’re going to put together.” you scoffed, “what, you’re just gonna watch me?” “not really,” he motioned his head towards the desktop. “I'm gonna set this up for you, so have fun doing that!” he handed you the toolbox and gave you one last thumbs-up before turning around to your computer. huffing, a strand of hair flew in front of your face as you sat cross-legged in front of the box and eventually assembled your new chair. the only sounds that were heard in the room were wooseok’s fast typing and your small sighs as you’d exhale after putting together one piece at a time. so naturally, to get rid of the silent and awkward air surrounding the two of you, you started the conversation. “so, I was wondering, how did you get all that information on me? like where I went to school, and what my schedule and stuff were like?” wooseok’s typing speed didn’t seize but he continued, “I’m a hacker, that’s what I do.” you snorted at his comment, and this caused him to turn his head around fully to face you. “what’s so funny?” “you sound like the guy from agent cody banks, bro,” you guffawed and shook your head. wooseok just blinked back at you. “who?” this caused you to put down the wheel and screwdriver. you looked up at him, your jaw dropped. “what? you’ve never seen that movie before? alright, wooseok, the first assignment from me to you: we have to have you watch agent cody banks. it’s a classic movie.” you started telling wooseok all about your love for movies, and how you grew up watching some of the films your parents found to be iconic and then movies that were iconic in your generation. you seemed to be so lost in your own little world, that you didn’t notice wooseok was now finished setting up what he needed to and was not diligently listening to you, watching the small twinge in your eyes only grow brighter as you progressed further. “oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to bore you or anything. movies just get me so riled up,” “no, I didn’t mind it or anything.” you were caught off guard by the tone in his voice. “you know, you’re different now than what you were two weeks ago. I was scared to even talk to you,” you mumbled the last part to yourself, hoping he wouldn’t hear but alas, a bitter smile made its way onto wooseok’s face, “yeah, well I haven’t had the best experiences with people, in general.” you did get him to watch cody banks later that night though, which he enjoyed (you thought you saw him smile).

that was one of the few non-work-related conversations you’d had with him. well, if you count work as wooseok walking you through the programs, and file systems, then yeah. but you hadn’t gotten your first real assignment until a few days later. it was three in the morning and you were sleeping soundly when you heard rapping against your door. you groggily opened your eyes, sight still blurry from sleep and you staggered out of bed, the corner of the bed bumping you just above the knee. “ah, fuck,” you mutter, rubbing the inflicted area as you continue to the door. you open the door, and squint, making out wooseok standing there, chest heaving. “what in the world?” wooseok enters your room, pushing you to the side. “may I ask what you’re doing in here, at 3 AM?” “I’ve got your first assignment, and we need this done as soon as possible.” it took you some time to comprehend his words. “wait,” you start, “you want us to start on this now?” wooseok nodded as if it was obvious. if your eyes didn’t shoot open before, they were now. “so hurry up, come out and into the computer room, I’ll give you the details there.” “can I at least bring a coffee with me?” for a second, wooseok squinted, then grunted, “fine,” before walking out of your room, leaving the door ajar. “uh, thanks for closing the door,” you grumbled, before changing out of your pajamas and fixing your appearance a bit. you went into the kitchen and began making your coffee (you only got around halfway through, though, because soonja came into the kitchen, helping you make your coffee. you thanked her and insisted she go back to sleep, but she refused until the coffee mug was in your hands.) slowly, you walked to the room with steady steps, and knocked with your other hand. seconds later, the door gently swung open and you made your way to your chair, silently praying that it wouldn’t fall apart then and there (it didn’t). after taking a swig of your coffee, you set it down and pivot your seat to face wooseok, and before you can ask him anything, he starts, “seungwoo needs some details on the military leaders, because he’s about to send dongpyo to one of their bases and we need all the information we can possibly get.” then he jotted down a list of things he needed you to get. you scanned the note and it seemed like you only needed to find who this guy was affiliated with, in terms of his friend circles. not bad, you think, before getting to work. so from three to almost five-thirty, you’re hopeless, and although wooseok offered to help, a part of you wanted to do this by yourself. so you refused, to which wooseok nodded, then said, “I’ll be heading to bed, let me know when you’re done.” you mumbled a ‘yep’, then kept going. it’s not like you didn’t know what you were doing, you thought, it’s just slightly more difficult than you perceived it to be. luckily, wooseok left you something similar to a cheat sheet, and you quickly were able to get the information. 

at this point, you were about seventy-five percent done, and just finished research on the military leader’s favorite bar’s owner, when something striked you as interesting. the bar owner was from the same high school as jinhyuk. lee jinhyuk; the guy who got you into this whole thing. after jotting that information down, you couldn’t help but let your curiosity get the best of you, as you clicked on the high school name. loads of records popped up on your screen, from student yearbooks to records on all the staff from the past 10 years and the student incidents and records. you set out to look for jinhyuk’s stuff, again, out of sheer curiosity. only then were you surprised with what you saw on the screen. a picture of jinhyuk, tall and lanky as he still was with his arm hooked around wooseok. he still looks the same, albeit his features have definitely sharpened since and dare you say, he looks much more attractive now. you don’t know if it was from the lack of sleep or the caffeine, but you pieced some things together: jinhyuk did mention to you that he was close with one of the x1 members, and you did ask wooseok how he got the information on you, it’s clear that jinhyuk and wooseok are still quite close and they probably share everything with each other. your curiosity sunk into you further, and then you went back to the database before searching up wooseok’s name under the high school. the first thing you saw made your heart stop; it was an article labeled, “student runs away from school after severe bullying”, and reading it, you learned that around five or six years ago, wooseok had transferred midway through his senior year to this high school, for “personal reasons”, and people had called him a freak and had bullied him, pulling all sorts of stunts on him. one day he just ran away from school. as you read the finishing sentence of the article, your eyes started to sting and you couldn’t look at it anymore. you quickly closed the tab, gathered all your information and sent it right away to wooseok, shaky hands hovering over the keyboard. you press enter, clear your throat and whisper ‘going to bed’ because you can’t trust your voice right now, and you hurry on back to your room, where after some difficulty, you’re able to find your languor once more and fall back into a deep slumber. 

when wooseok and you began opening up towards one another, he showed you a different side of himself. he was no longer the asshole you made him out to be when you first met him; rather, he made a complete 360 of his original impression. but now, you understand why that may have been hard for him. your mind wanders off into these thoughts and you don’t notice that wooseok has been calling you for some time. it’s only when he barges into your room, finding you on your bed, eyeing the blank phone screen in front of you. “y/n,” you flinch, and look up to meet wooseok’s concerned gaze. “what’s going on? I’ve been calling you for a while,” you clear your throat and snap your eyes away from his, before saying, “sorry, I was thinking about something, did you need something?” wooseok’s eyebrows furrowed at your sudden movements. why did it seem like you were avoiding him? had he done something wrong? maybe he upset you? these questions began to hiss at his anxious state, that he was holding together in front of you. “uh, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any problems last night, looking for the information,” he starts, but you stop him, reassuring him with a smile too wide and a nod too positive, but it’s convincing enough as he nods quietly, before muttering that he’s gonna go, then gently closes your door as he leaves the room. you let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding and push your hair back with your hands. it’s hard to avoid wooseok ever since you learned of his past; you see him every day, now, because you kinda have to. not that you don’t want to see him because of course, that’s not the case. in fact, you’d say you were growing quite fond of the man for some time now. which is why avoiding him has grown to be such a difficult task for you. but seeing him will only remind you of what he’s been through. you felt guilty for learning all this information without his being aware of it, and it felt like you violated his privacy. and you did, and so whenever you saw him, that guilt went off in your head like an alarm, a reminder.

you were paying the price for your curiosity, so much so that one night, you couldn’t sleep. it was like the guilt was eating you away, so much so that it was now in the way if your everyday life. you kept your conversations with wooseok minimal and silently did as you were told because you were afraid that it would be a matter of sentences before you burst. you grunted, burying your face in your hands as you paced back and forth in your room before you decided to put on your robe and slippers, then headed out to the backyard. the sounds of the cicadas and the stars shining in the sky managed to calm your jittery state, and your breathing relaxed a bit until you heard, “y/n? what are you doing out here?” you turn and lo and behold, by the back door leaned a relaxed wooseok, hands stuffed in his pockets. “couldn’t sleep. I had to clear my head,” you tell him, turning your head back to the sky. his footsteps are approaching closer and the sound of your heartbeat starts to reach your ears. then, his hand rests on your shoulder and you turn slowly to face him. “what’s going on? you’ve been distant for some time, you never talk to me anymore... did I say something?” you shake your head instantly, reassuring him that he didn’t do anything wrong, but then his voice grows louder, “well, why have you not been talking to me then? you’re avoiding me and I don’t even know why!” shocked by the sudden outburst, you don’t realize that tears are welling up in your eyes and wooseok’s widen. “I-I’m sorry, oh no, no, please don’t cry,” and wooseok, panicked, begins walking backward. enough is enough you think, and you wipe your eyes violently and whisper, “wooseok, sit, I’ll tell you everything.” and so you do. as you tell him the story, you notice the changes on wooseok’s face, this being one of the only times he’s expressed emotions as vividly as he ever did with you. “I didn’t want to say anything because I felt guilty. I felt like I did something I shouldn’t have, and I’m really sorry,” but he cuts you off, emotion thick in his voice, “no, I’m sorry. I get it, you were only curious. I transferred midway through the year because my family was breaking apart. my dad used to gamble, and he gambled away our home. my mom was fed up, so she took me and my younger brother and we ran away from him. I don’t talk about this a lot; in fact, I only told seungwoo about it, but, the reason I left was... was because it was suffocating living like that. wake up in the morning and go to school, only for people to push you around, take your stuff, and then the whole cycle repeats itself. I wasn’t alone, though, because I had jinhyuk. I spoke to him before I left and I told him I would leave, of course; he’s more than a friend, he’s like a brother to me. that’s why he and I are still as close as we were. but anyway, that’s why I have problems when there are circumstances in which my personal space gets violated. I don’t like it when people touch my things, I don’t like it when things aren’t a certain way and seungwoo knew this before he offered me this position.

“I get it, you were only curious, that’s why you made the decisions that you did. thank you for telling me, I thought I had done something to make you upset, and so I felt .” wooseok finished, looking up to see you silently crying. his hands reach up and wipe your tears, and you choke back a sob. “why are you crying?” “because you didn’t deserve any of that, you have such a good heart, wooseok. you are such a good person and it’s upsetting to know what you went through.” then you wrapped your arms around him, tucking your face into his neck. at first, wooseok doesn’t know what to do, body freezing at your sudden action, but then he slowly melts into your embrace and reciprocates it. after you calm down a bit, you push away from his embrace, bashfully gazing to the ground. “I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything,” and wooseok smiles at your cute form. “y/n,” you look up at him through your lashes and see the grin on his mouth and wow, you didn’t think he could get more attractive. “I like you.” and although a pink hue settles on his ears, he continues, “at first I was upset you picked me. I thought I would teach you stuff, and you would just mess things up all the time, and I would have to correct your mistakes, but you proved me wrong. you’re one smart and kind young woman and I’ve had the honor and privilege to work with you. but with time, your quirks and habits grew on me, and well, so did you. so tell me, will you go out with me?” your heartbeat picks up its pace again and leaning in, you plant a small peck on his lips, and before you can pull away, wooseok’s arms wrap around your frame, pulling you in and deepening the kiss. then wooseok pulls back, cupping your face in his palm to lock his eyes with your own. “yes, kim wooseok, I’d like that very much.” and it is safe to say that since that night, you’ve experienced nothing but beautiful, radiant days, and peaceful, serene nights.

a/n: ahhh that’s over! thanks for waiting, I hope you guys liked it! this was written after my midterms so some parts of the storyline may seem a bit wonky, just fyi, but that’s all for wooseok. now, who do we want to see next? did you think it was going to be wooseok? if not, who did you associate with the mini rubik’s cube? comment down below <3

ofc I uploaded it early... enjoy!

next up is: the ninja star

coterie: the ninja star (1/2)

gang!x1 x fem!reader

synopsis: you’re an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. but what happens when you catch the gang that is famous for keeping their deeds under the table, in action?

coterie’s masterlist can be found here

pairing: lee eunsang and y/n

a/n: cursing and mild violence, so proceed with caution.

you hold the ninja star with caution, making sure the sharp edges don’t poke your hand. you surprise yourself with the choice you made; of all the knick-knacks and trinkets in the glass bowl, you picked this? nevertheless, you displayed the sharp object to the boys and your stomach felt like it dropped down to your feet when you saw the boy move up. “it’s me.” it was the same boy from earlier, from the interaction with jinhyuk. the violent threats he made still fresh in your mind, when you were given the decision to choose who you wanted, you most definitely did not want to choose him, but fate was never on your side. seungwoo glanced at the boy then back at you, now frozen in shock. “alright, eunsang, you take her with you, then and tell her what you do.” your eyes are glued to the ground, so you hear the squeak of shoes and footsteps going different directions and flinch as a hand wraps around your wrist, roughly dragging you. only then do you come back to reality, eyes making their way up to see the force belonging to the boy you’re working with. “y/n y/l/n.” he mumbled, and you squeak back, “y-yes?” “you remember my name?” your mind goes back to the names from earlier. dongpyo, was it? no, that was the shorter boy. maybe hangyul? oh no, that was the other guy. his name was- “lee eunsang. you took too long to answer so I’ll just tell you,” eunsang comes to an abrupt stop in the middle of the hallway, and because he stopped with a sudden force, you collided into his back. you see him clench his jaw and he fully turns around to face you. the rage in his eyes is like none other, you think and he growls a bit and reaches for the ninja star in your hand, pulling it out of your grasp. the vigor with which he yanked the small weapon from your hand causes a corner of it to cut your palm a bit, and instinctively, you wince at the sting and pull your hand up to your chest, guarding it with the other hand. “you’re fragile,” he scoffs, rolling his eyes. “that tells me you may not even be suited for this job. not to worry, your first task is simple; remember my name. that shouldn’t be too hard, but judging by the fact that I just told you my name out there, a little over ten minutes ago and you still forgot it tells me this is gonna be a lengthy task for you.” he turns around on his heel, and heads back to the same direction. and although you are frightened to death, you call out, “what’s your job here?” he turns his head and says, “meet me here tomorrow at 5 am, sharp. then I’ll tell you. for now, do whatever the fuck you want. my head is pounding like a bitch,” and he leaves you standing in the hallway. you manage to find your way back to your room. 

how rude, you think, as you slump back onto your bed. so far, eunsang has left nothing but bad impressions on you. hell, the first time you saw the guy, he was beating the shit out of jinhyuk. you remember his merciless gaze and the way anger seemed to constantly burn in his eyes, and that causes a shiver to run down your back. you lift your hand to examine it; that moment had gone by so quick, with the way eunsang spoke to you and the way he snatched the weapon out of your hand, you didn’t even stop to check how badly you had been cut. thankfully, the ninja star didn’t penetrate too deep into your skin, and you ran your fingers over the small running down your palm when you heard a knock on your door. alarmed, you slowly rose and went to answer it, only to find soonja standing there, with a first aid kit in her hand. your shock must’ve been apparent on your face, because soonja then smiled, “mr. lee asked me to bring these to you, as you were injured. do you need any assistance with cleaning the wound?” you accepted the kit she was holding out for you and politely shook your head, giving her a thank you before she gave you a short bow and walked away. you sit comfortably on your bed, before opening the first aid kit and treating the cut. while applying the ointment, you begin to think, wow, the asshole does have a heart. he sent a first aid kit to apologize because he literally almost stabbed my hand, and you scoff before grabbing a bandaid and sealing the wound. you put up the first aid kit, then head to bed, because it’s been a long day for you. there’s one problem, though; you can’t fall asleep. you knock out for intervals before waking up again and again. maybe it’s where you are or even everything you’ve dealt with within the past 24 hours, which is causing the disturbances in your slumber. it feels like you’ve just tucked yourself into bed, but when you turn over to check the time on your phone, you read that it’s almost a quarter to four in the morning. you lied in bed at around 12:30. sighing because it’s useless to fall asleep when you would be waking up in an hour, you push yourself out of the covers and wash your face. you throw on a hoodie over your pajamas and decide that since you weren’t planning on going back to sleep anytime soon, you may as well explore this house a little more.

and so you went, walking down the seemingly endless hallways. while some of the doors are closed (you assume the other guys are probably in those rooms and sleeping at this time, like normal people) you still find tons of other rooms, with doors open enough for you to sneak in and out of. so far you’ve seen a theater room, a room with a bunch of files, and just some spaces used for storage. as you walked down another hallway, you couldn’t help but notice the increasingly louder noises of something getting hit repeatedly. you had towards the direction of the noise. the sound gets clearer and you pick up smaller grunts. finally, you reach the door and you see it’s a workout room. and dead center stood a panting eunsang, a sandbag swinging lightly back and forth. you notice that his knuckles were starting to bleed, so you cleared your throat, signaling your presence, to which eunsang peers at you with heavy breaths. his eyes then flash over to the clock hanging on the wall. “you’re here early. why’s that?” “couldn’t sleep. so I decided to go on a little adventure this morning,” and as you lifted your hand to fix your hair, eunsang’s eyes darted to the bandaid you used on the cut from earlier. clearing his throat and darting his eyes to a different direction, he started, “sorry about your hand.” you shook your head, “it’s fine, it wasn’t even that deep of a cut.” the room when silent for a bit and all that was heard were eunsang’s breaths, slowly coming back to their normal rhythm. “you asked me last night what I do in the gang, and I told you I would give you the answer now. so, here it is. you saw me that night, beating up your boyfriend-” “he’s not,” you cut him off and eunsang’s gaze shoots up at you, and you urge him to continue, “well, uh, jinhyuk, then. that’s what I do; I’m the ‘bad cop’, I am the one in charge of showing people their place, to remind them who’s the one with the power. I do most of the fighting our gang typically gets involved in. so there, now you know. I’m going to also make you stay paired with me since this was your choice and I cannot tell you to pick someone else. otherwise, seungwoo hyung’s gonna have my ass, and I can’t have that happen to me. so,” he crosses his arms and examines your facial expressions, unable to decipher what’s really going through your mind. “I’ll make it simple. tell me when you’re ready, and I will start training you. you will act as my helper. ‘help me fight the bad guys’ if you will.” the thought of you kicking ass wasn’t something you’d ever imagined would leave you feeling great but you’re not sure why you want to know if you have it in you to thrash someone to a pulp. especially if they are in the wrong. you obviously won’t go around beating up innocent people, but if you have the power to change a society like this, why wouldn’t you take it? sure it’s not conventional, but it’s all the more an experience you will never get anywhere else. after much thought, eunsang gets no response, and exhales, “alright, well, clearly you’re not ready for it, so don’t stress too much. you’re free to do what you want until you are ready to do this with me. I’m not going to force you to do anything.” he picks up a towel and is heading towards the exit when you call his name, your voice bouncing off the walls of the room. he stops and pivots to look at you, and you turn around and ask him, “when do we start?”